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Parents flunk new Billerica grade system

'Standards-based' report cards in K-6 draw petition challenge

By Evan Lips, elips@lowellsun.com

Updated:
02/03/2013 07:44:33 AM EST

BILLERICA -- Parents upset by replacement of traditional A-B-C grades with a "standards-based" numerical system will present a petition to the School Committee on Monday night demanding to have the district return to the old way of doing business.

The 2011-2012 school year marked the end of the traditional sixth-grade report card, where achievement has historically been illustrated by the traditional and all-encompassing A-B-C grading system. In its place

is now a standards-based report card, one which seeks to grade nearly every aspect of what happens inside the classroom, from homework completion and participation all the way up to monthly tests and final exams.

Deb Burke said her 11-year-old son, a sixth-grader, started the petition one day during lunch at the Marshall Middle School.

"Sign this if you do not like the new grading system and want to go back to percentages and letter grades," his petition simply stated.

Deb Burke decided last month to bring the petition to fellow parents.

Tough times adapting to change, it seems, are not restricted to the kids.

"It seems like a feel-good situation," she said last week. "They don't want to give the kids an 'F' because it might hurt his or her feelings."

Burke and other parents say they are worried that the new system means students no longer have an initiative to work harder for that 'A' grade. Gone, also, is the honor roll.

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The new system requires teachers to tack a number, ranging from one to four, alongside various classroom subject matter. The new system was instituted because the state adopted new curriculum frameworks in math and English/language arts.

Rather than an all-encompassing grade, sixth-graders receive numerous grades in each subject, based on goals to be met. For the numeric system, a four means "the student consistently meets and often exceeds the standard," while a one means "the student is not meeting the standard at the present time."

In mathematics, for example, students are graded on 10 skills, such as "understand and represent rational numbers; apply this understanding to real world situations" and "compute fluently with multi-digit whole numbers and decimals."

Burke said she's worried the district is "creating a group of mediocre kids" by "bucketing them together."

The petition has been online for a little more than two weeks and has garnered more than 500 parent signatures.

Superintendent of Schools Tim Piwowar said Thursday he understands that the change is tough for both parents and students. The new system was actually introduced to kindergarten and first grade in 2008, eventually including fourth and fifth grades at the start of 2010.

Piwowar said parents had little to say about the elementary school changes.

"We took that silence as tacit approval that people understood," he said.

After a lull in 2011, the start of the current school year saw the new system brought to sixth grade. And then came the backlash.

Piwowar said he recently sat down for lunch with a table of sixth-graders at the Marshall Middle School to hear what they had to say about the new system.

He recalled one girl's reasons for disliking.

"I asked her why," Piwowar said. "Her answer was that she didn't like bringing her report card home because instead of a parent seeing an A-minus they saw areas where she could improve. "I said to her, that's kind of the point."

Other school districts also use some form of standards-based grading. In Westford, for example, elementary school students receive one of six grades on a variety of standards: "N" for "needs more time," three "A" grades for "approaching the standard," "M" for "meeting the standard," and "M+" for "mastery."

As for fears that the new system will be introduced at the high school level, Piwowar was quick to squash any rumors. But the system will be introduced to seventh and eighth grades during the next two years, albeit with a hybrid letter grade attached to the standards report.

"Kids applying to Shawsheen Tech or private schools will still be able to use their letter grades," he said.

For Piwowar, he's not only up against convincing parents and students, he's also going against hundreds of years of conventional educational culture. The reasons behind the switch, he said, are the opposite of what Burke and other parents have said they fear the most -- mediocrity.

He talked about a fictional student who routinely scores 95s and 100s on decimal multiplication tests because she learned to multiply decimals before sixth grade.

"Mom and Dad are happy she got an A-plus but the reality is that she hasn't learned anything new," Piwowar said.

Parents will be able to have their say at Monday night's meeting, which will be at the Parker Elementary School at 6 p.m. Piwowar said he's viewing it as an opportunity to keep the conversation going. He added that he's committed to explaining the reasons for the changes.

But he knows the roadblocks won't be moved with ease.

"There are cultural pieces at stake here," Piwowar said. "Like if kids have older siblings who went through sixth grade with letter grades, like when they see or hear about letter grades on movies or on television.

"There will always be this cultural thing about getting A's and B's and the status that comes with it," he said.

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